"Eight soldiers died as the result of a munitions blast at the 31st arsenal of the Russian navy in Ulyanovsk," the defence ministry spokesman told AFP.

Six of the men were contract soldiers and two were officers, the Interfax news agency reported, citing the defence ministry.

It was the same facility where two firefighters were killed on November 13 in a spectacular series of explosions that shattered windows and lit up the sky as munitions were being detonated in a controlled operation.

In Monday's incident, a shell exploded as troops were loading live ammunition into a truck as part of the clean-up operation from the previous accident, the defence ministry spokesman said.

Two soldiers were injured and were expected to survive after undergoing surgery, Interfax said.

Regional governor Sergei Morozov said in a statement that no civilians were injured and there was no damage to residential areas.

The blast came hours after the regional emergency ministry branch warned residents that it was carrying out "planned detonation of unexploded shells" from the arms depot, promising that it was following "safety measures."

Military investigators were dispatched to the city, about 900 kilometres (560 miles) east of Moscow, to establish the reason for Monday's blast, the regional military prosecutors told the Interfax news agency.

The explosions earlier this month sparked a massive fire that killed two rescue workers and caused the evacuation of more than 3,000 local residents.

Early reports after the November 13 blasts said 35 soldiers were missing and feared dead. They were later however found alive and safe, hiding in a bomb shelter.

Around 20 people required medical attention and 11 were hospitalised following the incident earlier this month.

Accidents involving exploding ammunition are common at Russia's run-down military bases. In September, a fire set off a munitions blast at a base in the Urals cityr of Chelyabinsk, killing an officer wounding two conscripts.

The latest blast is an embarrassment to Russia both because of the recent precedent and because President Dmitry Medvedev is scheduled to visit Ulyanovsk on Tuesday to meet Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev.

After the November 13 accident, Medvedev ordered two ministries to investigate the causes and also gave military bases two weeks to verify their fire safety and prevention measures.

Medvedev and Aliyev are to discuss international efforts to resolve the Azerbaijan-Armenia dispute over Nagorny Karabakh and to inaugurate a square in named after Aliyev's late father and former Azerbaijani leader, Heidar Aliyev.

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